News

15.01.09

The Sheriff...

Aloha and welcome to the first episode of The View From... Some of you may know me or recognise my handle from the Arctic Monkeys forum, most of you may not, so please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mark (sometimes known as The Sheriff) and my path with the Arctic Monkeys has been entwined for coming up to 5 years now. During this time I’ve been documenting them from very early on in their career with photos, videos, and features such as Matt’s tour diaries and the Xmas messages. It is along those avenues that this section of the site becomes pertinent. I’m here to give you a glimpse, a peek, a view from the road with Arctic Monkeys.

In case you didn’t already know, Arctic Monkeys are in the process of recording another album. If you did know that then you may not know that recording is going extremely well and sounds flipping ace. By now you will have realised that they have sneaked some new tunes into the set; what’s your opinion on them so far? They’re probably all over Youtube already, recorded from peoples mobiles at the gig so I’m not going to bother posting my high quality videos with line recorded audio from the sound desk. What you will get from me though, over the course of the next 3 weeks, are photos, videos and musings from me on the road. The laughs, the highs and the bum notes.

And so it begins 11577.34 miles travelled over 36 hours door to door. At least 4 airplane meals, each with a different type of meat but yet worryingly all tasting exactly the same. We (the crew) arrived in Wellington at 3pm, very tired and very grumpy, but had to keep awake for a few more hours to sort our body clocks out and be ready to work the next day. The band arrived the day before us after spending New Years in Australia, and had set up camp at a local recording studio to rehearse the set in anticipation of the opening night of this tour at the Wellington Town Hall.

Rehearsals complete, base was shifted to the Town hall to combine the lights and sound together. All that was left to add now was the crowd (and a bucket or two of sweat, man it was hot!). 13 months off…(would they be match fit?). You wouldn’t have known and it certainly doesn’t seem like it. Wellington’s first ever Arctic Monkeys gig was a resounding success, the previously unheard songs were well received, but it was always going to be the older stuff that really got the crowd bouncing and singing. I don’t know if you noticed but there was even a new band member on stage (although one review cruelly referred to her as a toy piano. Shame on you.)

Anyway, that’s all for now, onwards to Auckland. I’ll keep you updated along the way with photos, stories and videos of any tour shenanigans, there is already talk of skydiving! Let’s see how that one pans out.